Islamic State fighters hid behind 50,000 civilian hostages as Iraqi forces blitzed Fallujah. The jihadis used the human shield as efforts to retake the ­terrorist stronghold, which kicked off under a US-led coalition on May 22, intensified.

Some 70 fanatics have been killed in airstrikes in the past five days in Iraq and Syria, including Maher al-Bilawi, IS’s leader in Fallujah.